Choice of pipelines for the transport of hydrocarbons

The choosing of the pipeline which will transport the hydrocarbon whether it’s in its
liquid state, gaseous state or both, with very particular characteristics each one is a
very important task that requires a grand amount of knowledge about fluid
mechanics and its behavior, this is why tests, studies and calculations must be
done before we choose the kind of pipe that we’ll work with, in fact, if we obtain
wrong data will lead to an incorrect decision and will affect the transport of the
hydrocarbon, and that will result in economic and natural resources loses, even
human resources could be lost, for this and more in this investigation article a
broad study about the aspects that need to be considered was made, aspects
related with fluid mechanics when selecting a transport pipe.
Pipeline flow aspects(
A very important aspect are the energy losses, a fluid in movement has to kinds of
energy, kinetic and potential, during the flow the fluid will suffer losses because of
the friction between itself and the pipe walls, to obtain the measurement of this
losses it is necessary to make a comparison between the total energy in two
different flow points, this calculation will give us the data kanown as preassure
gradient.
It’s important to know the friction losses and the potential energy changes, since
with them we can determine in a right way the king of bomb and pipeline.
To exemplify this, we can use the next image:
Consider a fluid with stationary flow in a circular pipe, as seen in the image, dthe
avarege speed of the flow is “V”, the pipe diameter is “D”, and the difference
between the preasures, separated by a distances “L” is (p-P)
Formula
Also, with thi type of pipe is possible to obtain data in the following way:
The fluid is pumped with a known volumetric expense, the differenc of the
preasure between point A and Point B is measure with the help of a manometer,
the fluid returns to the mesurement tank and it goes back to weighing, this will
allow to calculate the density, the critical velocity of depositation and the amount of
solids contained in the fluid, in this way, control is maintained to avoid blockages.
The whole process isdescribed in the following image
Imagen
The next ecuation shows us the shear strenght in the pipe wall, wich is another
way to express the fiction losses, and with the next ecuation it’s possible to obtain
the shear strenght for any radius:
Formula
Other important aspects that are necessary for the selection of the pipeline are the
friction factor and the Reynolds number, the calculation of a friction factor is
important because it will help us to obtain the calculation of the energetic losses in
a pipe system, as we know to have a optimal pipe we need a diameter that is
enough to minimize friction losses but it must also be as low as possible to obtain
somewhat low costs, that is where the friction factor works.
If we add the friction losses in a pipe to the pressure gradient and the shear stress
in the wall of the pipe, we can get to express a dimensionless friction factor "f" that
is better known as Fanning friction factor.
Formula
The value "f" depends largely on the flow conditions, that is, the value of the
Reynolds number.
The Reynolds number is a factor that represents to us if the fluid is turbulent or
laminar, depending on the result obtained in the calculation of this.
When the speed is below a certain critical value it is said that the flow is laminar,
and when it is found above it is said that the flow is turbulent, the change from one
flow to another is the result of the opposition of flow and in the way in which the
friction losses change, Reynolds applied a dimensional analysis to the transition of
the flows and came up with the following expression:
The Reynolds number is a factor that relates the forces of inertia and the viscosity
forces of a fluid.
The following graph represents the relationship of the friction number with the
Reynolds number
Here it can be seen that for low Reynolds numbers the flow is laminar, as it
increases, it changes, first to transitional and finally to turbulent.
Conclusion
The aspects analyzed above are fundamental for the choice of a pipeline for the
transport of hydrocarbons, also to maintain the behavior of the fluid as we wish,
many times mistakes are made because we do not know what each factor
represents completely, that is why it is important to read this article and know the
importance of the mechanics of fluids in the choice of pipes and in general in the
engineering, but mostly in the petroleum industry that all the time is related to this
science, the aspects touched in this article are just the fundamentals to achieve the
objective, but you can still find many more aspects to assess, such as materials,
flow, speeds and fluid composition, is therefore important for the next
professionals in the oil industry to investigate more about thissubject and even
become experts in the field.